The Conscience of a Curmudgeon (David Bardallis)

David Bardallis, who became disenchanted with politics years ago, admits he is a Ron Paul supporter:

Here is my little confession to the world at large: I’m a Ron Paul supporter. This might not seem like much in the way of a confession, but for me it represents something of a coming out. No, I’m not some aging red-diaper baby who has only now seen the light. It’s more like a reawakening. Let me explain.

In my most youthful and idealistic years I labored in the vineyards of conservo-libertarian think-tankdom. They were not necessarily bad years; in fact, I met lots of dedicated and wonderful people, most all of whom I consider friends to this day. Together, we toiled tirelessly to produce studies, reports, commentaries, and policy briefs full of logic and evidence and reason explaining why this or that political or economic course of action would yield the most desirable outcome in terms of justice, prosperity, morality, decency, and simple human dignity.

But eventually, I grew disenchanted with the whole project. It began to dawn on me that we could churn out report after report warning of the malevolence and stupidity of any given government proposal and extolling the fairness and wisdom of the best alternative policy decisions – and yet it would never matter. And the reason it would never matter is because those to whom the studies, reports, commentaries, and policy briefs were most obviously addressed did not care about things like logic and evidence and reason. They were corporate media hacks and politicians, and what they care about most is popularity and power – things that only the most disordered of personalities place at the pinnacle of their Maslowian hierarchy of needs.

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